Wednesday, March 7, 2012

In the morning of March 8, Gabriela will hold a protest action at the
Pandacan Oil Deport and in the afternoon at around 2 p.m., the women’s
group will hold a program at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo to be capped by a
torch parade from Plaza Miranda to Mendiola in the evening.By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com

MANILA — In the face of the weekly and unabated price increases of
oil and other basic commodities, progressive women from Gabriela call on
the Filipino people to unite on March 8, the International Women’s Day,
to press the government to control prices.
“We will continue to criticize government policies that make the
lives of Filipino women and their families poor. Since International
Women’s Day was first commemorated, the oppression and exploitation of
women have never stopped. The issues they are confronting might have
changed over the years but the struggle never ceased,” Joms Salvador,
deputy secretary general of Gabriela, said.

The International Women’s Day is being commemorated worldwide since
1911. In the Philippines, women’s participation in the struggle to free
the country from oppressors, such as that of Gabriela Silang and
Gregoria de Jesus, is already evident in its rich history. But it was
only during martial law under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos that
International Women’s Day was formally commemorated. Every year since,
Gabriela has been holding a big protest action to commemorate
International Women’s Day.

In a statement, Gabriela said women carry the burden of making sure
that their meager family income would be able to cover the family’s
daily needs. “The women mainly forego their share of the food wso that
her husband and children could eat. This is why it is in the interest of
the women to protest and fight against the increasing prices of oil and
staple goods that has brought further burden to Filipino families.”

A recent SWS survey
reveals an increase in families experiencing involuntary hunger at
least once in the past three months. The survey was conducted from
December 3 to 7 , 2011. The number of families who experienced hunger
in December, at 22.5 percent or an estimated 4.5 million families, is
higher than the 21.5 percent or 4.1 million families who experienced
involuntary hunger last September 2011..... MORE

BAGUIO CITY — According to the respected professor and scholar of culture Dr. Morr Tadeo Pungayan, the Ibaloi language is the identification of the Ibaloi people.

In the first Ibaloi Forum dubbed “Tongtong” held at the Baguio
Museum, Pungayan said that in other provinces of the Cordillera region,
they speak and sIng their hymns and history in their own languages and
dialects. He said the rich history of the Ibalois meanwhile is written
and sung in the English language.

Pungayan said that the Nabaloy or the Ibaloi language is an
independent language. He stressed that the Ibaloi language does not
belong to any family of languages thus it is not a simple dialect. He
added that Nabaloy can compete with other languages of the world.

The Ibaloi professor said that sadly, the Nabaloy is already
endangered as many Ibaloi youths at present do not even know how to
speak the language and sadly, some of them even cannot understand it..... MORE

Cyrenaica, the eastern region of Libya, has elected a regional
congress and declared semi-autonomy from the capital Tripoli. The
“blatant call for fragmentation” of the country was condemned by Libya's
ruling NTC.
Thousands of major tribal leaders and militia commanders attended a
celebratory ceremony in the region’s center Benghazi on Tuesday.

The
congress stated that Cyrenaica had suffered decades of marginalization
under the ouster ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Now the oil-rich region
extending from the coastal city of Sirte to Egyptian border is taking
its fortunes into its own hands..... MORE

Undercover NATO troops are already in Syria despite denials from
their parent governments, according to a leaked brief from a
highly-placed analyst.

­
The information comes from a hacked email from leading
private US intelligence agency Stratfor, whose correspondence has been
released by Wikileaks since February 27. The email appears to be written
from the address of Reva Bhalla (bhalla@stratfor.com), the company’s
director of analysis, for internal use, and details a confidential
Pentagon meeting in December. The consultation is alleged to have been
attended by senior analysts from the US Air Force, and representatives
from its chief allies, France and the United Kingdom...... MORE

It was one of thousands of micro-messages sent early Tuesday from
Twitter accounts associated with the loose-knit yet internationally
scattered and seemingly unstoppable hacking collective Anonymous.
Seemingly unstoppable because a reign of high-profile assaults on
governments, corporations and other entities with questionable
connections has become a calling card of a group that has experienced
few losses in a checkered online career that has at the same time
spawned successful exploits against the likes of the FBI, CIA, SONY and
the Motion Picture Association of America.

Seemingly, however, is a word absolutely worthy of emphasis in this instance..... MORE

Internet activists do not rally for “free online stuff,” the leader
of the UK Pirate Party told RT. Rather, they protest against giving
government tools to censor the web and to restrict civic freedoms.

Online users who came to protest against ACTA bill in Europe and SOPA
and PIPA legislations in the United States, did not rally for “free
online stuff” but were inspired by more selfless goals, leader of the UK
Pirate Party Loz Kaye says.

"It is not about free stuff. It is about free people and free expression – that is what is driving people out onto the street,” he said..... MORE

03/07/2012
If Secretary Edwin Lacierda and his
colleagues in that three headed Palace Communications Group (PCG) think
they have drowned out public outrage over their hasty
clearing-cum-bumbling defense of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
(Pagcor) Chairman and CEO Bong Naguiat’s decidedly illegal acceptance of
“gifts and cash” from Japanese pachinko king and Pagcor Entertainment
City locator, Kazuo Okada, they have another think coming.

Up to
now, loads of letters and messages condemning Naguiat’s stance and the
administration’s double standard have been pouring in non-stop. They
were particularly incensed by P-Noy’s insistence that his administration
has afforded both Naguiat and Chief Justice Renato Corona the
“presumption of innocence” which is a laugh given the battering which
the latter has been subjected to from day one of this daang matuwid
regime..... MORE

Farmers
belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita
(Ambala) and Unyon ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura (Uma) held a rally at
the Supreme Court yesterday, asking the High Court to rule on the case
with finality involving the disputed Hacienda Luisita, owned by the
family of the president.
The protesting farm workers slammed
President Aquino’s appointee to the SC, Associate Justice Lourdes
Sereno, who, in her dissenting opinion on the case, said Hacienda
Luisita, Inc. (HLI) and Luisita Realty, Inc.
shall be entitled to the
payment of just compensation for the agricultural lands based on their
fair market value as of Jan. 2, 2006, which would give the President and
his Cojuangco-Aquino relatives some P10 billion which the farmers can
hardly afford to pay.

The High Court’s decision entitled HLI to
just compensation for the agricultural land that will be transferred to
the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to be reckoned from Nov. 21,
1989..... MORE

The ruling was arrived at in a
closed-door caucus and will be the subject later of a “lengthy, formal
and written” document, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, sitting as
presiding officer in the impeachment proceedings, said.

He
emphasized there will be no “opening” of accounts of Corona especially
on his alleged foreign deposit accounts under the said ruling..... MORE

03/07/2012
Amid confirmation of an alleged coup
plot supposedly being hatched by whom Malacañang referred to as group
trying to regain power, President Aquino doesn’t see any need to beef up
his security details, but would welcome a new presidential car —
perhaps a bullet-proof and bomb-resistant vehicle like the controversial
Porsche which he once had.

In warding off an idea of detailing
more presidential guards to look after the President, deputy
presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said that even if there are basis
to believe on the supposed ouster plot, such effort would not prosper
citing the high professionalism of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) from where new recruits would allegedly come from.

“We are
confident the AFP remains a professional organization and will always
follow the chain of command,” Valte said in a radio interview..... MORE

Security
measures are all set for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who
was allowed by the court to attend the funeral mass for her
brother-in-law, the late Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo
Jr. on Friday.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO)
director Allan Purisima disclosed that hundreds of policemen will be
deployed to secure the former president.

Purisima however refused
to give further details but he noted that there are security
arrangements from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon
City where Mrs. Arroyo has been placed on hospital arrest..... MORE

To decongest
Metro Manila roads of thousand of buses jamming traffic in its cities,
Malacaang has ordered the fast-tracking of the construction of two
intermodal terminals for provincial buses plying North and South Luzon.

Metro
Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino said the one
terminal in Balintawak will serve buses plying northern routes and
another in Taguig will serve buses on southern routes. A large parcel of
land at the exit point of South Luzon expressway (Slex) where the
former Food Terminal Incorporated stood will be the site of the Taguig
terminal..... MORE

03/07/2012
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan has called for
amendments to Republic Act 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act in
support of former Philippine Olympic Committee President Cristy Ramos
who has sought redress for alleged sexual harassment by the Philippine
Azkals team.

“They should be taught a lesson. The likes of Angel
Guirado and Lexton Moy as well as their team mates who tolerated their
improper comments and actuations should be taught respect and decorum.
They should realize that because they are members of the Philippine
team, young boys look up to them and their recent actions do not set a
good example for the youth,” said Ilagan..... MORE

To decongest
Metro Manila roads of thousand of buses jamming traffic in its cities,
Malacaang has ordered the fast-tracking of the construction of two
intermodal terminals for provincial buses plying North and South Luzon.

Metro
Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino said the one
terminal in Balintawak will serve buses plying northern routes and
another in Taguig will serve buses on southern routes. A large parcel of
land at the exit point of South Luzon expressway (Slex) where the
former Food Terminal Incorporated stood will be the site of the Taguig
terminal.

Tolentino disclosed that President Aquino during a
cabinet meeting had prioritized the said construction and designated
Transportation and Communication Secretary Mar Roxas as the project
chairman and Tolentino as vice chairman..... MORE